FujiFilm - Faulty Battery Charger

[mbaginy]

I bought a FujiFilm X100T before last Christmas and now need to exchange the battery charger for the third time.  It's faulty again.  The green light shows charging but the battery isn't being charged.  Has anybody else encountered this with their FujiFilm chargers?

The other chargers, for the X-Pro 1 and X-T1, have never acted up.  Only the X100T seems to have been shipped with faulty chargers.  Sadly, the X100T battery differs from my other FujiFilm batteries.

[Kevin Raber]

I have 2 100T battery chargers one for home and one for traveling and never any problems.

[mbaginy]

I hope they keep working, Kevin!  I'll visit my dealer this week and ask for an exchange of the charger.  Also, I'll ask him if other customers have similar a experience.

[mbaginy]

Just a brief update, should anyone be interested: the battery charger actually was faulty.  Fujifilm exchanged it for me and I’m again charging the battery properly.  My dealer mentioned that a number of X100T customers have encountered the same problem.  Possibly Fujifilm's supplier has quality problems?  Any number of possibilities.  I hope the charger doesn’t conk out again.

[Alan Smallbone]

Lensrentals had an article awhile back on reliability. They found Fuji made the worst chargers in terms of reliability, they had more of them fail than any other brand. I use aftermarket chargers mostly, I just recently found the Watson charger, it is a dual charger and they sell plates for just about any camera battery, it will also tell you remaining charge on a battery by pressing the test button and has some nice features. B&H sell them and the plates.

Alan

[mbaginy]

Lensrentals had an article awhile back on reliability. They found Fuji made the worst chargers...

Thanks Alan, that's interesting!  I wasn't aware of Lens Rental's findings.  Neither chargers of my X-Pro 1 or X-T1 have failed (yet).  Only the one of my X100T has been acting up.

I'll be sure to read the Lens Rental review and look into alternative chargers.  I wasn't even aware that there were such beasts for camera batteries.  I'm currently using six different chargers for my seven different cameras!  Some sort of standardized battery plus charger would be a great improvement.  I've also collected so many chargers and cables for countless cell phones and other gadgets.  What a waste!  What chaos!

[Alan Smallbone]

You are most welcome Mike. Here is a link to the Watson page, you can select from the dropdown the list of plates. The dual charger is what I am using. Another nice feature is it has a USB port on the side for charging a usb device while it is charging batteries. B&H and Amazon sell them for around $80. I believe the are available in Europe also.
http://www.poweredbywatson.com/

Alan

[rdonson]

Thanks, Alan.  I found one for the Fuji W-126 batteries at Amazon.  The price isn't outrageous so I'm likely to order one soon.

https://smile.amazon.com/Watson-Charger-NP-W126-Battery-Plates/dp/B00EHSPVBY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469047130&sr=8-1&keywords=watson+duo+lcd+charger

[mbaginy]

Alan and Ron, thanks for the links and your suggestions!  Viewing the Watson site, I've selected those items I'll need to fit the four cameras I use regularly.  It'll be nice to confine all those individual charges and cables to the basement and deal with a limited amount of hardware.

The Watson site mentions B&H being their exclusive retailer, though Amazon also offers a limited range.  Odd, but I'll place an order directly with B&H.  And I'll keep my fingers crossed, German Customs don't delay the parcel (too long).

[rdonson]

Amazon says my Watson charger will arrive Monday.

This will be a real nice complement to the X-T2 when I get one as I'm definitely getting the VBG and W-126S batteries.

[rdonson]

Well, the Watson charger arrived this afternoon.  It's just what I was hoping for!  Thanks again, Alan, for the recommendation.

[Dan Wells]

Never had a reliability problem with a Fuji charger (the NP-W 126 chargers, I haven't used the smaller ones for the X100 series), but they ARE big, slow and not nearly as well designed as the cameras and lenses. I suspect Fuji buys them somewhere, and is skimping on the quality (as most camera makers do)...

[andre_m]

Calumet Germany also sells the 'WATSON' as PROSPEC twin-channel battery charger.
I use one charger and 6 adapterplates for different battery types since years.
Stopped buying from B&H because of very high shipping costs even they have some exclusive products not distributed in Europe. (like the Vello Off-Camera TTL Flash Cord for Sony Alpha)

André

[Petrus]

I had X100T as a backup camera for my trip to Tibet in 2013 and of course the charger did not work at all, could shoot only a few hundred frames with the darn thing. Had to send both the camera and the charger to England to have the charger replaced. Took a month... Later the camera developed another problem by starting to use 1/4000 sec and manual even when the dial was set to A. First every now and then, later so often the camera became unusable. Fixed under warranty but took over a month. Problem became back and the whole top assembly had to be changed, this time costing almost 400€ in real money, and and the trip to England lasting over a month.

[mbaginy]

Calumet Germany also sells the 'WATSON' as PROSPEC twin-channel battery charger.
André

Thanks for the tip, André.  I'm also no longer keen on ordering from overseas companies anymore.  I almost always includes having to drive to the local Customs Department to wait in line, open the parcel, show what's inside, sometimes explain the item (haggle in which catagory a macro lens may fall !) and pay duty.

Dan's explanation seems correct - Fujifilm don't manufacture the chargers themselves, they outsource these.  I can't recall all details my local dealer mentioned but he's had a number of defective X100 T chargers returned.  I finally received mine, hope it lasts.

I wish camera manufacturers would place a greater emphasis on quality of: lens shades, cables, instruction manuals, chargers, websites, etc.  I know that every cent counts, but even Leica's instruction manuals stink.